So I Stayed in the Darkness With You
by NoNamePaper
Summary: Three weeks ago, the Elements of Harmony vanquished Nightmare Moon and reunited Princess Celestia with her long lost sister. Princess Luna's reinstatement was seen to with the proper fanfare, and she's delighted to be back. But there's something nagging at her, pulling her into the depths of her mind, a thousand-year-old secret she has to handle.


Luna made her way though thoughts and whims, plodding through recalled landscapes and navigating abandoned schemes, leaping synapses, always searching, sifting through her mind for a presence. A particular presence, a strong one, mighty, unlike the few minor personas she had already passed up. Seeking out her other veneer, her companion of thought, she slipped through figmented environments and long forgotten fantasies.

She found her in a poorly lit conclusion; only a few pinpricks of luminescence and a slight scent of cedar existed to elucidate the midnight mare nearly one and a half times her size. She lay sprawled amongst scattered fragments of steel blue armor, as if she had not moved at all in the three weeks, even as fluctuant as time could be in the field of notions.

Nightmare barely lifted her head, her eyes flicking in Luna's direction, lingering just long enough to take notice of her.

"Here to gloat?" she asked accusingly.

"No." Luna paused then, unsure of how to proceed. The black mare lying on the nebulous ground took the initiative, though.

"Why are you not blocking me from your memories?"

Luna had to stop and consider this for a moment. Why was she not keeping the recollection of their unshared pasts from the access of this _great maliciousness_ that had just been defeated? It was certainly within the realms of her abilities, especially considering Nightmare Moon's weakened state. After enough internal deliberation, Luna responded as truthfully as she could. "Because I abandoned you... and some part of me is trying to make up for that by at least letting you share in–... in what I'd experienced."

The black slits of Moon's eyes met Luna's again. There was some calculation going on behind them, some processing. Finally, she let out, "We swore to never fall in love again."

That was something Luna had had on her mind for a long time, a query she was more than prepared to respond to. "Yes – but he was different… He was smart and fast; he was lonely..." The iris mare became caught up in recollection, but still her ebony likeness still heard her speak. "He was fire and ice and rage, the storm at the heart of a thousand suns... He showed me places where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; ponies made of smoke and cities made of song... He was wonderful – I didn't have much of a choice..." Her pause lengthened as she brought her self out of the memories. "And his final act was to send me back to you."

Luna had moved while she spoke, now standing before the slumped Nightmare, who's head was lifted slightly. Their eyes were locked on one another's, unflinching slits on soft blue irises.

The Princess of the Night made her move – courting nightmares. She pushed her head forward and down, pressing her imagined lips to those of her counterpart. Despite the immeasurability of time in the whims of thought, Luna did not recall it lasting long.

"What was that for!?" Now it was hard to distinguish whether Moon's declare was accusing or shocked.

"For everything you've done for me."

"But I am your evil." The statement was so simple and so blunt.

Luna was taken aback; Nightmare Moon really believed that. "No you're not. You're everything that I needed after I fell. I was so lonely, so sad... then you were there; you listened, you told me what I wanted to hear. You did everything in your power to make me feel better, to protect me. And when I couldn't do it anymore, you took the reigns, kept me going.

"And then I blamed my own misguidedness on you. I threw you out; I despised you for separating me from the sister that I was already distancing myself from. I fought you off, determined that as soon as I was rid of you, everything would be fine. I ran away with our visitor, and for a while I could fool myself. Then things got worse. We got caught up in wars, in espionage, in tragedy... and then–… then the brutal end that sent me hurtling back...

"We're back now, back in the land of Equestria, and so much has changed. There are so many new rules, new customs, old ones that don't belong anymore. There is so much that I'm going to have to learn and become responsible for... so much. The thing is, though, I can't do it alone. I don't _want_ to do it alone. I–..." Luna's breath caught, so she stopped and inhaled again before restarting. "I want you there, Nightmare – at my side – like it should have been from the beginning."

Nightmare Moon held Luna's gaze for what could have been seconds or years. Eventually, movement manifested on the part of the deep-black mare. Having finally found the strength to stand, she hoisted herself up onto her hooves, towering over the smaller princess half a step away, and addressed her.

"After all these years, all our differences and fighting, everything I did – everything _you_ did – you would just take me back in, embrace us without second thought?" The tone of her inquiry was impossible to read. As much a Luna secretly idolized how well Nightmare could intimidate by masking all intentions, it did not make it any easier to commune with her.

"Well… yes," Luna managed to stammer out, steeling her resolve; she did not come all this way to start lying to herself again.

The pause as they stared into one another's eyes felt shorter this time. For a moment, Luna could again see the processing in Nightmare's eyes, as if it had come to a final conclusion, before it was gone, and the towering, sable figure closed the distance between the two of them. Enveloping her smaller counterpart in the tightest of mental embraces, she uttered a sentence that would be ringing through the shared minds of Luna and Nightmare Moon for eons to come.

"I could not have wished for anything more."


End file.
